


ADDRESS 



/ 



THE CITIZENS OF BOSTON, 

ON THE XVIl'^" OF SEPTEMBER, M DCCC XXX, 

THE CLOSE 

OF 

THE SECOND CENTURY 

FROM THE 

FIRST SETTLEMENT OF THE CITY. 



By JOSIAH aUINCY, ll. d. 

PRESIDENT OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 



,,ry o^ Q^on^f.^ 



BOSTON: 

J. H. EASTBUKN, PRINTER TO THE CITY. 



1830. '• 






< 



^LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 5 



I FORCE COLLECTION.] j^\ 

^DNITED STATES OF AMERICA.^ 



CITY OF BOSTON. 

Li Common Council, Sept. 17, 1830. 
Ordered, that the Committee of Arrangements for the Celebration 
of this day be, and they are hereby, directed to present the thanks of 
the City Council to the Honorable Josiah Quincy, for the learned, 
eloquent, and appropriate Address, this day delivered by him, and 
respectfully request a copy of said Address for the press. 
Sent up for concurrence, 

B, T. PicKMAN, President. 

In the Board of Aldermen, Sept. 17, 1830. 

Read and concurred. 

H. G. Otis, Mayor. 

A true copy, Attest, 

S. F. M'Cleary, City Clerk. 



Boston, Sept. 17, 1830. 

Hon. JOSIAH QUINCY, 

The undersigned, the Committee of Arrangements for the 
Centennial Celebration of the Settlement of Boston, have the honor to 
enclose you an attested copy of a vote of the City Council, and 
respectfully ask your compliance with the request contained therein. 

H. G. Otis. 

Benjamin Russell. 

WiNSLOw Lewis. 

J. Eveleth. 

Th. Minns. 

B. T. PiCKMAN. 

J. W. James. 
John P. Bigelow. 
Washington P. Gragg. 



ADDRESS. 



Or all the affections of man, those which connect 
him with ancestry are among the most natural and 
generous. They enlarge the sphere of his interests ; 
multiply his motives to virtue ; and give intensity to 
his sense of duty to generations to come, by the per- 
ception of obligation to those which are past. In 
whatever mode of existence man finds himself, be it 
savage or civihzed, he perceives that he is indebted 
for the far greater part of his possessions and enjoy- 
ments, to events over which he had no control ; to 
individuals, whose names, perhaps, never reached his 
ear ; to sacrifices, in which he never shared ; and to 
sufferings, awakening in his bosom few and very 
transient sympathies. 

Cities and empires, not less than individuals, are 
chiefly indebted for their fortunes to circumstances 
and influences independent of the labors and wis- 
dom of the passing generation. Is our lot cast in a 
happy soil, beneath a favored sky, and under the 
shelter of free institutions ? How few of all these 
blessings do we owe to our own power, or our own 



6 

prudence ! How few, on which we cannot discern 
the impress of long past generations ! 

It is natural, that reflections of this kind should 
awaken curiosity concerning the men of past ages. 
It is suitable, and characteristic of noble natures, 
to love to trace in venerated institutions the evi- 
dences of ancestral worth and wisdom ; and to cher- 
ish that mingled sentiment of awe and admiration, 
which takes possession of the soul, in the presence 
of ancient, deep-laid, and massy monuments of intel- 
lectual and moral power. 

Under impulses thus natural and generous, at the 
invitation of your municipal authorities, you have as- 
sembled. Citizens of Boston, on this day, in commem- 
oration of the era of the foundation of your city, bear- 
ing in fond recollection the virtues of your fathers, to 
pass in review the circumstances which formed their 
character, and the institutions which bear its stamp ; 
to take a rapid survey of that broad horizon, which is 
resplendent with their glories ; to compress, within 
the narrow circle of an hour, the results of memo- 
ry, perception, and hope ; combining honor to the 
past, gratitude for the present, and fidelity to the 
future. 

Standing, after the lapse of two centuries, on the 
very spot selected for us by our fathers, and sur- 
rounded by social, moral, and rehgious blessings 
greater than paternal love, in its fondest visions, ev- 
er dared to fancy, we naturally turn our eyes back- 
ward, on the descending current of years ; seeking 
the causes of that prosperity, which has given this 
city so distinguished a name and rank among simi- 
lar associations of men. 



Happily its foundations were not laid in dark ages, 
nor is its origin to be sought among loose and ob- 
scure traditions. The age of our early ancestors 
was, in many respects, eminent for learning and civil- 
ization. Our ancestors themselves were deeply 
versed in the knowledge and attainments of their pe- 
riod. Not only their motives and acts appear in the 
general histories of their time, but they are un- 
folded in their own writings, with a simplicity and 
boldness, at once commanding admiration and not 
permitting mistake. If this condition of things re- 
strict the imagination in its natural tendency to ex- 
aggerate, it assists the judgment rightly to analyze, 
and justly to appreciate. If it deny the power, en- 
joyed by ancient cities and states, to elevate our an- 
cestors above the condition of humanity, it confers a 
much more precious privilege, that of estimating by 
unequivocal standards the intellectual and moral 
greatness of the early, intervening, and passing pe- 
riods ; and thus of judging concerning comparative 
attainment and progress in those qualities which 
constitute the dignity of our species. Instead of 
looking back, as antiquity was accustomed to do, on 
fabling legends of giants and heroes, — of men ex- 
ceeding in size, in strength, and in labor, all expe- 
rience and history, and consequently, being obhged 
to contemplate the races of men, dwindhng with 
time, and growing less amid increasing stimulants and 
advantages ; we are thus enabled to view things in 
lights more conformed to the natural suggestions of 
reason, and the actual results of observation ; — to 
witness improvement in its slow but sure progress ; 
in a general advance, constant and unquestionable; — 



8 

to pay due honors to the greatness and virtues of our 
early ancestors, and be, at the same time, just to the 
not inferior greatness and virtues of succeeding gene- 
rations of men, their descendants and our progeni- 
tors. Thus we substantiate the cheering conviction, 
that the virtues of ancient times have not been lost, 
or debased, in the course of their descent, but, in 
many respects, have been refined and elevated ; and 
so standing faithful to the generations which are past, 
and fearless in the presence of the generations to 
come, we accumulate on our own times the responsi- 
bility, that an inheritance, which has descended to 
us enlarged and improved, shall not be transmitted 
by us diminished or deteriorated. 

As our thoughts course along the events of past 
times, from the hour of the first settlement of Boston 
to that in which we are now assembled, they trace 
the strong features of its character, indelibly impressed 
upon its acts and in its history ; — clear conceptions 
of duty ; bold vindications of right ; readiness to in- 
cur dangers and meet sacrifices, in the maintenance 
of liberty, civil and religious. Early selected as the 
place of the chief settlement of New England, it has, 
through every subsequent period, maintained its rel- 
ative ascendancy. In the arts of peace and in the 
energies of war, in the virtues of prosperity and ad- 
versity, in wisdom to plan and vigor to execute, in 
extensiveness of enterprise, success in accumulating 
wealth, and liberality in its distribution, its inhabi- 
tants, if not unrivalled, have not been surpassed, by 
any similar society of men. Through good report 
and evil report, its influence has, at all times, been 
so distinctly seen and acknowledged in events, and 



9 

been so decisive on the destinies of the region of 
which it was the head, that the inhabitants of the ad- 
joining colonies of a foreign nation early gave the 
name of this place to the whole country ; and at this 
day, among their descendants, the people of the 
whole United States * are distinguished by the name 
of " Bostonians." 

Amidst perils and obstructions, on the bleak side 
of the mountain on v/hich it was first cast, the seed- 
ling oak, self-rooted, shot upward with a determined 
vigor. Now shghted and now assailed; amidst alter- 
nating sunshine and storm ; with the axe of a native 
foe at its root, and the lightning of a foreign power, 
at times, scathing its top, or withering its branches, 
it grew, it flourished, it stands, — may it for ever 
stand! — the honor of the field. 

On this occasion, it is proper to speak of the foun- 
ders of our city, and of their glory. Now in its true 
acceptation, the term glorij expresses the splendor, 
which emanates from virtue in the act of producing 
general and permanent good. Right conceptions 
then of the glory of our ancestors are alone to be at- 
tained by analyzing their virtues. These virtues, 
indeed, are not seen charactered in breathing bronze, 
or in living marble. Our ancestors have left no Co- 
rinthian temples on our hills, no Gothic cathedrals 
on our plains, no proud pyramid, no storied obe- 
hsk, in our cities. But mind is there. Sagacious 
enterprise is there. An active, vigorous, intelligent, 
moral population throng our cities, and predomi- 
nate in our fields ; men, patient of labor, submissive 
to law, respectful to authority, regardful of right, 
* See note A. 



to 

faithful to liberty. These are the monuments of our 
ancestors. They stand immutable and immortal, in 
the social, moral, and intellectual condition of theirde- 
scendants. They exist in the spirit, which their pre- 
cepts instilled, and their example implanted. Let 
no man think that to analyze, and place in a just light, 
the virtues of the first settlers of New England, is a 
departure from the purpose of this celebration ; or 
deem so meanly of our duties, as to conceive that 
merely local relations, the circumstances which have 
given celebrity and character to this single city, are 
the only, or the most appropriate topics for the oc- 
casion. It was to this spot, during twelve successive 
years, that the great body of those first settlers emi- 
grated. In this place, they either fixed permanently 
their abode, or took their departure from it for the 
coast, or the interior. Whatever honor devolves 
on this metropolis from the events connected with. 
its first settlement, is not solitary or exclusive ; 
it is shared with Massachusetts ; with New England; 
in some sense, with the whole United States. For 
what part of this wide empire, be it sea or shore^ 
lake or river, mountain or valley, have the descend- 
ants of the first settlers of New England not travers-' 
edl what depth of forest, not penetrated? what 
danger of nature or man, not defied? Where is the 
cultivated field, in redeeming which from the wilder- 
ness, their vigor has not been displayed ? Where, 
amid unsubdued nature, by the side of the first log- 
hut of the settler, does the school-house stand and 
the church-spire rise, unless the sons of New Eng- 
land are there ? Where does improvement advance, 
under the active energy of willing hearts and ready- 



11 

bands, prostrating the moss-covered monarchs of the 
wood, and from theh' ashes, amid their charred roots, 
bidding the greensward and the waving harvest to 
upspring, and the spirit of the fathers of New Eng- 
land is not seen, hovering, and shedding around the 
benign influences of sound social, moral, and rehgious 
institutions, stronger and more enduring than knot- 
ted oak or tempered steel? The swelling tide of 
their descendants has spread upon our coasts ; as- 
cended our rivers ; taken possession of our plains. 
Already it encircles our lakes. At this hour the 
rushing noise of the advancing wave startles the wild 
beast in his lair among the prairies of the West. 
Soon it shall be seen climbing the Rocky mountains, 
and, as it dashes over their cliffs, shall be hailed by the 
dwellers on the Pacific, as the harbinger of the com- 
ing blessings of safety, Hberty, and truth. 

The glory, which belongs to the virtues of our 
ancestors, is seen radiating from the nature of their 
design ; — from the spirit in which it was executed ; — 
and from the character of their institutions. 

That emigration of Englishmen, which, two centu- 
ries ago, resulted in the settlement, on this day, of 
this metropolis, was distinguished by the comparative 
greatness of the means employed, and the number, 
rank, fortune, and intellectual endowments of those 
engaged in it, as leaders, or associates. Twelve 
ships, transporting somewhat less than nine hundred 
souls, constituted the physical strength of the first 
enterprise. In the course of the twelve succeeding 
years, twenty-two thousand souls emigrated in one 
hundred and ninety-two ships, at a cost, including 
the private expenses of the adventurers, which can- 



12 

not be estimated, in our currency, at less than one 
million of dollars. At that time the tide of emigra- 
tion was stayed. Intelligent writers of the last cen- 
tury assert that more persons had subsequently gone 
from New England to Europe, than had come to it 
during the same period from that quarter of the 
globe. A cotemporary historian* represents the 
leaders of the first emigration, as " gentlemen of good 
estate and reputation, descended from, or connected 
by marriage with, noble famihes ; having large means, 
and great yearly revenue, sufficient in all reason to 
content ; their tables abundant in food, their coffers 
in coin ; possessing beautiful houses, filled with 
rich furniture ; gainful in their business, and growing 
rich daily ; well provided for themselves, and having 
a sure competence for their children ; wanting noth- 
ing of a worldly nature to complete the prospects of 
ease and enjoyment, or which could contribute to 
the pleasures, the prospects, or the splendors of fife." 
The question forces itself on the mind. Why did 
such men emigrate ? Why did men of their condition 
exchange a pleasant and prosperous home for a re- 
pulsive and cheerless wilderness ; a civihzed for a 
barbarous vicinity? why, quitting peaceful and 
happy dwellings, dare the dangers of tempestuous 
and unexplored seas, the rigors of untried and severe 
climates, the difficulties of a hard soil and the inhu- 
man warfare of a savage foe 7 An answer must be 
sought in the character of the times ; and in the 
spirit, which the condition of their native country 
and age had a direct tendency to excite and cherish. 

* Johnson's " Wonder- Working Providence of Sion's Saviour in 
New England," ch. 12. 



13 

The general civil and religious aspect of the Eng- 
lish nation, in the age of our ancestors, and in that 
immediately preceding their emigration, was singu- 
larly hateful and repulsive. A foreign hierarchy, 
contending with a domestic despotism for infallibility 
and supremacy, in matters of faith. Confiscation, 
imprisonment, the axe and the stake, approved and 
customary means of making proselytes and promoting 
uniformity. The fires of Smithfield, now lighted by 
the corrupt and selfish zeal of Roman pontiffs ; and 
now rekindled, by the no less corrupt and selfish 
zeal of English sovereigns. All men clamorous for 
the rights of conscience, when in subjection; all 
actively persecuting, when in authority. Every 
where religion considered as a state entity, and hav- 
ing apparently no real existence, except in associa- 
tions in support of estabhshed power, or in opposi- 
tion to it. 

The moral aspect of the age was not less odious 
than its civil. Every benign and characteristic virtue 
of Christianity was publicly conjoined, in close alli- 
ance, with its most offensive opposite. Humility 
wearing the tiara, and brandishing the keys, in the ex- 
cess of the pride of temporal and spiritual power. 
The Roman pontiff", under the title of " the servant 
of servants," with his foot on the neck of every mon- 
arch in Christendom ; and under the seal of the fish- 
erman of Galilee, dethroning kings and giving away 
kingdoms. Purity, content, and self-denial preach- 
ed by men, who held the wealth of Europe tributary 
to their luxury, sensuality, and spiritual pride. Broth- 
erly love in the mouth, while the hand applied the 
instrument of torture. Charity, mutual forbearance, 



14 

and forgiveness chanted in unison with clanking 
chains and crackling faggots. 

Nor was the intellectual aspect of the age less re- 
pulsive than its civil and moral. The native charm 
of the religious feeling lost, or disfigured amidst 
forms, and ceremonies, and disciplines. By one 
class, piety was identified with copes, and crosiers, 
and tippets, and genuflexions. By another class, all 
these were abhorred as the tricks and conjuring gar- 
ments of popery, or at best, in the language of Cal- 
vin, as " tolerable fooleries" ; while they, on their 
part, identified piety with looks, and language, and 
gestures, extracted or typified from scripture, and 
fashioned according to the newest " pattern of 
the mount." By none were the rights of private 
judgment acknowledged. By all, creeds, and dog- 
mas, and confessions, and catechisms, collected 
from scripture with metaphysical skill, arranged with 
reference to temporal power and influence, and 
erected into standards of faith, were made the flags 
and rallying points of the spiritual swordsmen of the 
church militant. 

The first emotion, which this view of that period 
excites, at the present day, is contempt or disgust. 
But the men of that age are no more responsible for 
the mistakes, into which they fell, under the circum- 
stances in which the inteflectual eye was then placed, 
than we, at this day, for those optical illusions to 
which the natural eye is subject, before time and ex- 
perience have corrected the judgment and instructed 
it in the true laws of nature and vision. It was their 
fate to live in the crepuscular state of the intellectual 
day, and by the law of their nature they were com- 



16 

pelled to see things darkly, through false and shifting 
mediums, and in lights at once dubious and deceptive. 
For centuries, a night of Egyptian darkness had over- 
spread Europe, in the "palpable obscure" of which, 
priests and monarchs and nobles had not only found 
means to enthral the minds of the multitude, but ab- 
solutely to lose and bewilder their own. When the 
hght of learning began to dawn, the first rays of the 
rising splendor dazzled and confused, rather than di- 
rected the mind. As the coming light penetrated 
the thick darkness, the ancient cumulative cloud 
severed into new forms. Its broken masses became 
tinged with an uncertain and shifting radiance. Shad- 
ows assumed the aspect of substances ; the evanes- 
cent suggestions of fancy, the look of fixed realities. 
The wise were at a loss what to believe, or what to 
discredit ; how to quit and where to hold. On all 
sides sprang up sects and parties, infinite in number, 
incomprehensible in doctrine ; often imperceptible in 
difference ; yet each claiming for itself infallibility, 
and, in the sphere it aftected to influence, supremacy ; 
each violent and hostile to the others, haughty and 
hating its non-adhering brother, in a spirit wholly 
repugnant to the humility and love inculcated by 
that rehgion, by which each pretended to be ac- 
tuated ; and ready to resort, when it had power, to 
corporal penalties, even to death itself, as allowed 
modes of self-defence and proselytism. 

It was the fate of the ancestors of New England 
to have their lot cast in a state of society thus unpre- 
cedented. They were of that class of the Enghsh 
nation, in whom the systematic persecutions of a 
concentrated civil and ecclesiastical despotism had 



16 

enkindled an intense interest concerning man's social 
and religious rights. Their sufferings had created in 
their mind's a vivid and inextinguishable love of civil 
and rehgious hberty ; a fixed resolve, at every peril, 
to assert and maintain their natural rio:hts. Amons: 
the boldest and most intelhgent of this class of men, 
chiefly known by the name of Puritans, were the 
founders of this metropoHs. To a superficial view, 
their zeal seems directed to forms and ceremonies 
and disciplines, which have become, at this day, ob- 
solete or modified, and so seems mistaken or mis- 
placed. But the wisdom of zeal for any object is 
not to be measured by the particular nature of that ob- 
ject, but by the nature of the principle, which the cir- 
cumstances of the times, or of society, have identified 
with such object. Liberty, whether civil or religious, 
is among the noblest objects of human regard. Yet, 
to a being constituted like man, abstract liberty 
has no existence, and over him no practical influence. 
To be for him an efficient principle of action, it 
must be embodied in some sensible object. Thus 
the form of a cap, the color of a surphce, ship- 
money, a tax on tea, or on stamped paper, ob- 
jects in themselves indifferent, have been so in- 
separably identified with the principle temporarily 
connected with them, that martyrs have died at 
the stake, and patriots have fallen in the field, and 
this wisely and nobly, for the sake of the princi- 
ple, made by the circumstances of the time to inhere 
in them. 

Now in the age of our fathers, the principle of 
civil and religious liberty became identified with 
forms, disciplines, and modes of worship. The zeal 



17 

of our fathers was graduated by the importance of 
the inhering principle. This gave elevation to that 
zeal. This creates interest in their sufferings. This 
entitles them to rank among patriots and martyrs, 
who have voluntarily sacrificed themselves to the 
cause of conscience and their country. Indignant at 
being denied the enjoyment of the rights of con- 
science, which were in that age identified with those 
sensible objects, and resolute to vindicate them, they 
quitted country and home, crossed the Atlantic, and, 
without other auspices than their own strength and 
their confidence in Heaven, they proceeded to lay 
the foundation of a commonwealth, under the princi- 
ples and by the stamina of which, their posterity 
have established an actual and uncontroverted inde- 
pendence, not less happy than glorious. To their 
enthusiastic vision, all the comforts of life and all the 
pleasures of society, were light and worthless in 
comparison with the liberty they sought. The 
tempestuous sea was less dreadful than the troubled 
waves of civil discord ; the quick-sands, the un- 
known shoals, and unexplored shores of a savage 
coast, less fearful than the metaphysical abysses and 
perpetually shifting whirlpools of despotic ambition 
and ecclesiastical policy and intrigue ; the bow and 
the tomahawk of the transatlantic barbarian, less ter- 
rible than the flame and faggot of the civilized Euro- 
pean. In the calm of our present peace and pros- 
perity, it is difficult for us to realize or appreciate 
their sorrows and sacrifices. They sought a new 
world, lying far off in space, destitute of all the at- 
tractions which make home and native land dear and 
venerable. Instead of cultivated fields and, a civiliz- 
3 



18 

ed neighbourhood, the prospect before them present- 
ed nothing but dreary wastes, cheerless chmates, and 
repulsive wildernesses, possessed by wild beasts and 
savages ; the intervening ocean unexplored and in- 
tersected by the fleets of a hostile nation ; its usual 
dangers multiplied to the fancy, and in fact, by ig- 
norance of real hazards, and natural fears of such, as 
the event proved to be imaginary. 

"Pass on," exclaims one of these adventurers,* 
" and attend, while these soldiers of faith ship for 
this western world ; while they and their wives and 
their little ones take an eternal leave of their country 
and kindred. With what heart-breaking affection did 
they press loved friends to their bosoms, whom they 
were never to see again ! their voices broken by 
grief, till tears streaming eased their hearts to recov- 
ered speech again ; natural aff'ections clamorous as 
they take a perpetual banishment from their native 
soil ; their enterprise scorned ; their motives de- 
rided ; and they counted but madmen and fools. 
But time shall discover the wisdom with which they 
were endued, and the sequel shall show how their 
policy overtopped all the human pohcy of this world." 

Winthrop, their leader and historian, in his simple 
narrative of the voyage, exhibits them, when in 
severe suff'erings, resigned ; in instant expectation of 
battle, fearless ; amid storm, sickness, and death, 
calm, confident, and undismayed. " Our trust," 
says he, " was in the Lord of hosts." For years, 
Winthrop, the leader of the first great enterprise, was 
the chief magistrate of the infant metropolis. His 

* Johnson in his "Wonder-Working Providences of Sion's Saviour 
in New England," ch. 12. 



19 

prudence guided its councils. His valor directed Its 
strength. His life and fortune were spent in fixing 
its character, or in improving its destinies. A bolder 
spirit never dwelt, a truer heart never beat, in any 
bosom. Had Boston, like Rome, a consecrated 
calendar, there is no name better entitled than that 
of Winthrop to be registered, as its " patron saint." 

From Salem and Charlestown, the places of their 
first landing, they ranged the bay of Massachusetts to 
fix the head of the settlement. After much delibera- 
tion, and not without opposition, they selected this 
spot ; known to the natives by the name of Shawmut, 
and to the adjoining settlers by that of Trimountain ; 
the former indicating the abundance and sweetness 
of its waters ; the latter, the pecuhar character of 
its hills. 

Accustomed as we are to the beauties of the place 
and its vicinity, and in the daily perception of the 
charms of its almost unrivalled scenery, — in the centre 
of a natural amphitheatre, whose sloping descents the 
riches of a laborious and intellectual cultivation 
adorn, — where hill and vale, river and ocean, island 
and continent, simple nature and unobtrusive art, with 
contrasted and interchanging harmonies, form a 
rich and gorgeous landscape, we are little able to 
realize the almost repulsive aspect of its original 
state. We wonder at the blindness of those, who, 
at one time, constituted the majority, and had well 
nigh fixed elsewhere the chief seat of the settlement. 
Nor are we easily just to Winthrop, Johnson, and 
their associates, whose skill and judgment selected 
this spot, and whose firmness settled the wavering 
minds of the multitude upon it, as the place for their 



20 

metropolis ; a decision, which the experience of two 
centuries has irrevocably justified, and which there 
is no reason to apprehend that the events or opinions 
of any century to come will reverse. 

To the eyes of the first emigrants, however, where 
now exists a dense and aggregated mass of living 
beings and material things, amid all the accommoda- 
tions of life, the splendors of wealth, the delights 
of taste, and whatever can gratify the cultivated 
intellect, there were then only a few hills, which, 
when the ocean receded, were intersected by wide 
marshes, and when its tide returned, appeared a 
group of lofty islands, abruptly rising from the sur- 
rounding waters. Thick forests concealed the 
neighbouring hills, and the deep silence of nature 
was broken only by the voice of the wild beast or 
bird, and the warwhoop of the savage. 

The advantages of the place were, however, clearly 
marked by the hand of nature ; combining at once, 
present convenience, future security, and an ample 
basis for permanent growth and prosperity. Towards 
the continent it possessed but a single avenue, and 
that easily fortified. Its hills then commanded, not 
only its own waters, but the hills of the vicinity. At 
the bottom of a deep bay, its harbour was capable 
of containing the proudest navy of Europe ; yet, 
locked by islands and guarded by winding channels, 
it presented great difficulty of access to strangers, 
and, to the inhabitants, great facility of protection 
against maritime invasion ; while to those acquainted 
with its waters, it was both easy and accessible. To 
these advantages were added goodness and plente- 
ousness of water, and the security afforded by that 



21 

once commanding height, now, alas ! obliterated and 
almost forgotten, since art and industry have levelled 
the predominating mountain of the place ; from 
whose lofty and imposing top the beacon-fire was 
accustomed to rally the neighbouring population, on 
any threatened danger to the metropolis. A single 
cottage, from which ascended the smoke of the hospit- 
able hearth of Blackstone, who had occupied the 
peninsula several years, was the sole civihzed mansion 
in the solitude ; the kind master of which, at first, 
welcomed the coming emigrants ; but soon, disliking 
the sternness of their manners and the severity of 
their discipline, abandoned the settlement. His rights 
as first occupant were recognised by our ancestors ; 
and in November, 1634, Edmund Quincy, Samuel 
Wildbore, and others were authorized to assess a rate 
of thirty pounds for Mr. Blackstone,* on the payment 
of which all local rights in the peninsula became 
vested in its inhabitants. 

The same bold spirit, which thus led our ancestors 
across the Atlantic and made them prefer a wilder- 
ness where liberty might be enjoyed, to civilized 
Europe where it was denied, will be found charac- 
terizing all their institutions. Of these, the limits of 
the time permit me to speak only in general terms. 
The scope of their policy has been usually re- 
garded as though it were restricted to the acquisition 
of religious liberty in the relation of colonial depend- 
ence. No man, however, can truly understand their 
institutions and the policy on which they were 
founded, without taking as the basis of all reason- 
ings concerning them, that civil independence was as 

* Winthrop, Vol. i, p. 45, note by J. Savage. 



22 

truly their object, as religious liberty ; * — in other 
words, that the possession of the former was, in their 
opinion, the essential means — indispensable to the 
secure enjoyment of the latter, which was their 
great end. 

The master-passion of our early ancestors was 
dread of the English hierarchy. To place them- 
selves, locally, beyond the reach of its power, they 
resolved to emigrate. To secure themselves, after 
their emigration, from the arm of this their ancient 
oppressor, they devised a plan, which, as they 
thought, would enable them to estabhsh, under a 
nominal subjection, an actual independence. The 
bold and original conception, which they had the 
spirit to form and successfully to execute, was the 
attainment and perpetuation of rehgious liberty, 
under the auspices of a free commonwealth.! This 
is the master-key to all their policy, — this the 
glorious spirit which breathes in all their institutions. 
Whatever in them is stern, exclusive, or at this day 
seems questionable, may be accounted for, if not 
justified, by its connexion with this great purpose. 

The question has often been raised, when and by 
whom the idea of independence of the parent state 
was first conceived, and by whose act a settled purpose 
to effect it was first indicated. History does not 
permit the people of Massachusetts to make a ques- 
tion of this kind. The honour of that thought, and of 
as eflScient a declaration of it as in their circumstances 
was possible, belongs to Winthrop, and Dudley, and 
Saltonstall, and their associates, and was included 
in the declaration, that "the only condition on 

* See note B. j See note C. 



23 

WHICH THEY WITH THEIR FAMILIES WOULD REMOVE 
TO THIS COUNTRY, WAS, THAT THE PATENT AND 
CHARTER SHOULD REMOVE WITH THEM." * 

This simple declaration and resolve included, as 
they had the sagacity to perceive, all the conse- 
quences of an effectual independence, under a nom- 
inal subjection. For protection against foreign pow- 
ers, a charter from the parent state Avas necessary. 
Its transfer to New England vested, effectually, in- 
dependence. Those wise leaders foresaw,! that, 
among the troubles in Europe, incident to the age, 
and then obviously impending over their parent state, 
their settlement, from its distance and early insignifi- 
cance, would probably escape notice. They trusted 
to events, and doubtless anticipated, that, with its 
increasing strength, even nominal subjection would 
be abrogated. They knew that weakness was the 
law of nature, in the relation between parent states 
and their distant and detached colonies. Nothing 
else can be inferred, not only from their making 
the transfer of the charter the essential condition of 
their emigration, thereby severing themselves from 
all responsibility to persons abroad, but also from 
their instant and undeviating course of policy after 
their emigration ; in boldly assuming whatever pow- 
ers were necessary to their condition, or suitable to 
their ends, whether attributes of sovereignty or not, 
without regard to the nature of the consequences 
resulting from the exercise of those powers. Nor 
was this assumption limited to powers which might 
be deduced from the charter, but was extended to 

* See Note D. f See Note E. 



24 

such as no act of incorporation, like that which they 
possessed, could, by any possibility of legal construc- 
tion, be deemed to include. By the magic of their 
daring, a private act of incorporation was transmuted 
into a civil constitution of state ; under the authority of 
which they made peace and declared war ; erected 
judicatures ; coined money ; raised armies ; built 
fleets ; laid taxes and imposts ; inflicted fines, penal- 
ties, and death ; and, in imitation of the British con- 
stitution, by the consent of afl its own branches, with- 
out asking leave of any other, their legislature modi- 
fied its own powers and relations, prescribed the qual- 
ifications of those who should conduct its authority, 
and enjoy, or be excluded from its privileges. The 
administration of the civil aff'airs of Massachusetts, 
for the sixty years next succeeding the settlement of 
this metropolis, was a phenomenon in the history of 
civil government. Under a theoretic colonial rela- 
tion, an efficient and independent Commonwealth 
was erected, claiming and exercising attributes of 
sovereignty, higher and far more extensive than, 
at the present day, in consequence of its con- 
nexion with the general government, Massachusetts 
pretends either to exercise or possess. Well might 
Chalmers assert, as in his Political Annals of the 
Colonies he does, that " Massachusetts, with a pe- 
culiar dexterity, abohshed her charter ; " * that she 
was always " fruitful in projects of independence, 
the principles of which, at all times, governed her 
actions." f In this point of view, it is glory enough 
for our early ancestors, that, under manifold dis- 

* Vol. I. p. 200. t Vol. I. pp. 158 and 177, 



25 

advantages, in the midst of internal discontent and 
external violence and intrigue, of wars with the sav- 
ages and with the neighbouring colonies of France, 
they effected their purpose, and for two generations 
of men, from 1630 to 1692, enjoyed liberty of con- 
science, according to their view of that subject, un- 
der the auspices of a free commonwealth. 

The three objects, which our ancestors proposed 
to attain and perpetuate by all their institutions, were 
the noblest within the grasp of the human mind, and 
those, on which, more than on any other, depend hu- 
man happiness and hope ; — religious liberty, — civil 
liberty, — and, as essential to the attainment and 
maintenance of both, intellectual power. 

On the subject of religious liberty, their intolerance 
of other sects has been reprobated as an inconsistency, 
and as violating the very rights of conscience for which 
they emigrated. The inconsistency, if it exist, is al- 
together constructive, and the charge proceeds on a 
false assumption. The necessity of the policy,* con- 
sidered in connexion with their great design of inde- 
pendence, is apparent. They had abandoned house 
and home, had sacrificed the comforts of kindred and 
cultivated life, had dared the dangers of the sea, and 
were then braving the still more appalling terrors 
of the wilderness ; for what ? — to acquire hberty 
for all sorts of consciences ? Not so ; but to vindi- 
cate and maintain the liberty of their own con- 
sciences. They did not cross the Atlantic, on a 
crusade, in behalf of the rights of mankind in gene- 
ral, but in support of their own rights and liberties. 

* See Note F. 
4 



26 

Tolerate ! Tolerate whom ? The legate of the Ro- 
man Pontiff, or the emissary of Charles the First and 
Archbishop Laud ? How consummate would have 
been their folly and madness, to have fled into the 
wilderness to escape the horrible persecutions of 
those hierarchies, and at once have admitted into 
the bosom of their society, men brandishing, and 
ready to apply, the very flames and fetters from 
which they had fled ! Those who are disposed to 
condemn them on this account, neither realize the 
necessities of their condition, nor the prevaiUng 
character of the times. Under the stern discipline 
of Elizabeth and James, the stupid bigotry of the 
First Charles, and the spiritual pride of Archbishop 
Laud, the spirit of the English hierarchy was very 
different from that which it assumed, when, af- 
ter having been tamed and humanized under the 
wholesome discipUne of Cromwell and his common- 
wealth, it yielded itself to the mild influence of the 
principles of 1688, and to the liberal spirit of Til- 
lotson. 

But it is said, if they did not tolerate their an- 
cient persecutors, they might, at least, have tole- 
rated rival sects. That is, they ought to have tole- 
rated sects, imbued with the same principles of in- 
tolerance as the transatlantic hierarchies ; sects, whose 
first use of power would have been to endeavour to 
uproot the liberty of our fathers, and persecute 
them, according to the known principles of sectarian 
action, with a virulence in the inverse rado of their 
reciprocal likeness and proximity. Those, who thus 
reason and thus condemn, have considered but very 
superficially the nature of the human mind and its 
actual condition in the time of our ancestors. 



27 

The great doctrine, now so universally recognised, 
that liberty of conscience is the right of the individ- 
ual, — a concern between every man and his Maker, 
with which the civil magistrate is not authorized to 
interfere, was scarcely, in their day, known, except 
in private theory and solitary speculation ; as a prac- 
tical truth, to be acted upon by the civil power, it 
was absolutely and universally rejected by all men, 
all parties, and all sects, as totally subversive, not 
only of the peace of the church, but of the peace of 
society.* That great truth, now deemed so simple 
and plain, was so far from being an easy discovery of 
the human intellect, that it may be doubted whether 
it would ever have been discovered by human rea- 
son at all, had it not been for the miseries in which 
man was involved in consequence of his ignorance of 
it. That truth was not evolved by the calm exer- 
tion of the human faculties, but was stricken out by 
the collision of the human passions. It was not the 
result of philosophic research, but was a hard 
lesson, taught under the lash of a severe disci- 
pline, provided for the gradual instruction of a being 
like man, not easily brought into subjection to vir- 
tue, and with natural propensities to pride, ambition, 
avarice, and selfishness. Previously to that time, in 
all modifications of society, ancient or modern, re- 
ligion had been seen only in close connexion with 
the state. It was the universal instrument by which 
worldly ambition shaped and moulded the multitude 
to its ends. To have attempted the estabhshment 
of a state on the basis of a perfect freedom of re- 

* Hume's History of England, Vol. vi. p. 168. 



28 

ligious opinion, and the perfect right of every man to 
express his opinion, would then have been consid- 
ered as much a solecism, and an experiment quite 
as wild and visionary, as it would be, at this day, to 
attempt the establishment of a state on the principle 
of a perfect hberty of individual action, and the per- 
fect right of every man to conduct himself according 
to his private will. Had our early ancestors adopted 
the course we, at this day, are apt to deem so easy 
and obvious, and placed their government on the ba- 
sis of liberty for all sorts of consciences, it would 
have been, in that age, a certain introducdon of an- 
archy. It cannot be questioned, that all the fond 
hopes they had cherished from emigration would 
have been lost. The agents of Charles and James 
would have planted here the standard of the transat- 
lantic monarchy and hierarchy. Divided and broken, 
without practical energy, subject to court-influences 
and court-favorites. New England at this day would 
have been a colony of the parent state,* her charac- 
ter yet to be formed and her independence yet to 
be vindicated. 

The non-toleration, which characterized our early 
ancestors, from whatever source it may have originat- 
ed, had undoubtedly the effect they intended and wish- 
ed. It excluded from influence in their infant set- 
tlement all the friends and adherents of the ancient 
monarchy and hierarchy ; all who, from any motive, 
ecclesiastical or civil, were disposed to disturb their 
peace or their churches. They considered it a meas- 
ure of " self-defence.'" And it is unquestionable, that 

* See Note G. 



29 

it was chiefly instrumental in forming the homogene- 
ous and exclusively republican character, for which 
the people of New-England have, in all times, been 
distinguished ; and, above all, that it fixed irrevocably 
in the country that noble security for religious liber- 
ty, the mdependc7it system of church government. 

The principle of the independence of the churches, 
including the right of every individual to unite with 
what church he pleases, under whatever sectarian 
auspices it may have been fostered, has, through the 
influence of time and experience, lost altogether its 
exclusive character. It has become the universal 
guarantee of rehgious liberty to all sects without dis- 
crimination, and is as much the protector of the Ro- 
man Cathohc, the Episcopahan, and the Presbyterian, 
as of the Independent form of worship. The secu- 
rity, which results from this principle, does not de- 
pend upon charters and constitutions, but on what is 
stronger than either, the nature of the principle in 
connexion with the nature of man. So long as this 
intellectual, moral, and religious being, man, is con- 
stituted as he is, the unrestricted liberty of associat- 
ing for public worship, and the independence of 
those associations of external control, will necessari- 
ly lead to a most happy number and variety of them. 
In the principle of the independence of each, the 
liberty of individual conscience is safe under the pan- 
oply of the common interest of all. No other per- 
fect security for liberty of conscience was ever de- 
vised by man, except this independence of the 
churches. This possessed, liberty of conscience 
has no danger. This denied, it has no safety. 
There can be no greater human security than com- 



30 

mon right, placed under the protection of common 
interest. 

It is the excellence and beauty of this simple prin- 
ciple, that, while it secures all, it restricts none. 
They, who delight in lofty and splendid monuments 
of ecclesiastical architecture, may raise the pyramid 
of church power, with its aspiring steps and grada- 
tions, until it terminate in the despotism of one, or a 
few ; the humble dwellers at the base of the proud 
edifice may wonder, and admire the ingenuity of the 
contrivance and the splendor of its massive dimen- 
sions, but it is without envy and without fear. Safe 
in the principle of independence, they worship, be 
it in tent, or tabernacle, or in the open air, as secure- 
ly as though standing on the topmost pinnacle of the 
loftiest fabric ambition ever devised. 

The glory of discovering and putting this principle 
to the test, on a scale capable of trying its efficacy, be- 
longs to the fathers of Massachusetts,*' who are enti- 
tled to a full share of that acknowledgment made by 
Hume, when he asserts, " that for all the liberty of 
the English constitution that nation is indebted to 
the Puritans." 

The glory of our ancestors radiates from no point 
more strongly than from their institutions of learning. 
The people of New England are the first known to 
history, who provided, in the original constitution of 
their society, for the education of the whole popu- 
lation out of the general fund. In other countries, 
provisions have been made of this character in favor 
of certain particular classes, or for the poor by way 

* Neal's History of the Puritans. Vol. i. p. 438 and 490. 



31 

of charity. But here first were the children of the 
whole community invested with the right of being 
educated at the expense of the whole society ; and 
not only this, — the obligation to take advantage of 
that right was enforced by severe supervision and 
penalties. By simple laws they founded their 
commonwealth on the only basis on which a re- 
public has any hope of happiness or continuance, 
the general information of the people. They de- 
nominated it "barbarism" not to be able "perfectly 
to read the English tongue and to know the general 
laws." * In sohciting a general contribution for the 
support of the neighbouring University, they declare 
that " skill in the tongues and liberal arts, is not only 
laudable, but necessary for the ivell-being of the com- 
monwealth." f And in requiring every town, having 
one hundred house-holders, to set up a Grammar 
School, provided with a master able to fit youth for 
the University, the object avowed is, "to enable men 
to obtain a knowledge of the Scriptures, and by ac- 
quaintance with the ancient tongues to qualify them 
to discern the true sense and meaning of the origin- 
al, however corrupted by false glosses." Thus lib- 
eral and thus elevated, in respect of learning, were 
the views of our ancestors. 

To the same master-passion, dread of the English 
hierarchy, and the same main purpose, civil inde- 
pendence, may be attributed, in a great degree, the 
nature of the government which the principal civil and 
spiritual influences of the time estabhshed, and, not- 
withstanding its many objectionable features, the 
willing submission to it of the people. 

* Old Colony Laws, p. 2G. 

t Records of the Colony, p. 117. lOtli Oct. 1652. 



32 

It cannot be questioned that the constitution of the 
state, as sketched in the first laws of our ancestors, 
was a skilful combination of both civil and ecclesias- 
tical powers. Church and state were very curiously 
and efficiently interwoven with each other. It is 
usual to attribute to religious bigotry the submission 
of the mass of the people to a system thus stern and 
exclusive. It may however, with quite as much 
justice, be resolved into love of independence and 
pohtical sagacity. 

The great body of the first emigrants doubdess co- 
incided in general rehgious views with those whose in- 
fluence predominated in their church and state. They 
had consequently no personal objection to the stern 
discipline their political system established. They 
had also the sagacity to foresee that a system, which 
by its rigor should exclude from power all who did 
not concur wnth their rehgious views, would have 
a direct tendency to deter those in other countries 
from emigrating to their settlement, who did not 
agree with the general plan of policy they had 
adopted, and of consequence to increase the probabili- 
ty of their escape from the interference of their an- 
cient oppressors, and the chance of success in laying 
the foundation of the free commonwealth they con- 
templated. They also doubtless perceived, that 
with the unqualified possession of the elective fran- 
chise, they had little reason to apprehend that they 
could not easily control or annihilate any ill effect 
upon their political system, arising from the union of 
church and state, should it become insupportable. 

There is abundant evidence that the submission of 
the people to this new form of church and state com- 



33 

bination was not owing to ignorance, or to indiffer- 
ence to the true principles of civil and religious lib- 
erty. Notwithstanding the strong attachment of the 
early emigrants to their civil, and their almost blind 
devotion to their ecclesiastical leaders, when, pre- 
suming on their influence, either attempted any thing 
inconsistent with general hberty, a corrective is seen 
almost immediately applied by the spirit and in- 
telligence of the people. 

In this respect, the character of the people of 
Boston has been at all times distinguished. In every 
period of our history, they have been second to none 
in quickness to discern or in readiness to meet 
every exigency, fearlessly hazarding life and for- 
tune in support of the liberties of the commonwealth. 
It would be easy to maintain these positions by a re- 
currence to the annals of each successive age, and 
particularly to facts connected with our revoludonary 
struggle. A few instances only will be noticed, and 
those selected from the earhest times. 

A natural jealousy soon sprung up in the me- 
tropolis as to the intentions of their civil and ec- 
clesiastical leaders.* In 1634 the people began to 
fear, lest, by re-electing Winthrop, they " should 
make way for a Governor for life." They accord- 
ingly gave some indications of a design to elect an- 
other person. Upon which John Cotton, their great 
ecclesiastical head, then at the height of his popu- 
larity, preached a discourse to the General Court, 
and delivered this doctrine ; " that a magistrate ought 
not to be turned out, without just cause, no more 
than a magistrate might turn out a private man from 

" Winthrop, Vol. i. p. 299. 



34 

his freehold, without trial." * To show their dislike 
of the doctrine by the most practical of evidences, 
our ancestors gave the political divine and his ad- 
herents a succession of lessons, for which they were 
probably the wiser all the rest of their lives. They 
turned out Winthrop at the very same election, and 
put in Dudley. The year after, they turned out 
Dudley and put in Haynes. The year after, they 
turned out Haynes and put in Vane. So much for the 
first broaching, in Boston, of the doctrine that public 
office is of the nature of freehold. 

In 1635, an attempt was made by the General Court, 
to elect a certain number of magistrates as coun- 
sellors/or life.j Although Cotton was the author also 
of this project, and notwithstanding his influence, yet 
such was the spirit displayed by our ancestors on the 
occasion, that within three years the General Court | 
was compelled to pass a vote, denying any such in- 
tent, and declaring that the persons so chosen 
should not be accounted magistrates or have any au- 
thority in consequence of such election. 

In 1636, the great Antinomian controversy divided 
the country. Boston was for the covenant of grace ; 
the General Court, for the covenant of w^orks. Under 
pretence of the apprehension of a riot, the General 
Court adjourned to Newtown, and expelled the Boston 
deputies for daring to remonstrate. Boston, in- 
dignant at this infringement of its liberties, was 
about electing the same deputies a second time. At 
the earnest solicitation of Cotton, however, they 
chose others. One of these was also expelled by 

* Wiathrop, Vol. i. p. 133. f Ibid. p. 186. I Ibid. p. 302. 



35 

the Court ; and a writ having issued to the town 
ordering a new election, they refused making any re- 
turn to the warrant, — a contempt which the General 
Court did not think it wise to resent. 

In 1639, there being vacancies in the board of as- 
sistants, the Governor and magistrates met and nomi- 
nated three persons, " not with intent," as they said, 
" to lead the people's choice of these, nor to divert 
them from any other, but only to propound for con- 
sideration (which any freeman may do), and so 
leave the people to use their liberties according to 
their consciences." The result was, that the peo- 
ple did use their liberties according to their con- 
sciences. They chose not a man of them.* So 
much for the first legislative caucus in our history. 
It probably would have been happy for their posteri- 
ty, if the people had always treated like nominations 
with as little ceremony. 

About this time also the General Court took ex- 
ception at the length of the '^lectures,^^ then the great 
delight of the people, and at the ill effects resulting 
from their frequency ; whereby poor people were led 
greatly to neglect their affairs; to the great hazard al- 
so of their health, owing to their long continuance in 
the night. Boston expressed strong dislike f at this in- 
terference, " fearing that the precedent might enthrall 
them to the civil power, and, besides, be a blemish up- 
on them with their posterity, as though they needed to 
be regulated by the civil magistrate, and raise an ill- 
savour of their coldness, as if it were possible for the 
people of Boston to complain of too much preaching." 

'' Ibid. Vol. II. p. 343. f Ibid. Vol. i. p. 325. 



36 

The magistrates, fearful lest the people should 
break their bonds, were content to apologize, to 
abandon the scheme of shortening lectures or dimin- 
ishing their number, and to rest satisfied with a gen- 
eral understanding that assemblies should break up 
in such season, as that people, dweUing a mile or two 
off, might get home by dayhght. Winthrop, on this 
occasion, passes the following eulogium on the peo- 
ple of Boston, which every period of their history 
amply confirms ; — "They were generally of that un- 
derstanding and moderation, as that they would be 
easily guided in their way by any rule from Scrip- 
ture or sound reason." 

It is curious and instructive to trace the principles 
of our constitution, as they were successively sug- 
gested by circumstances, and gradually gained by the 
intelligence and daring spirit of the people. For the 
first four years after their emigration, the freemen, 
like other corporations, met and transacted business 
in a body. At this time the people attained a repre- 
sentation under the name of deputies, who sat in the 
same room with the magistrates, to whose negative 
all their proceedings were subjected. Next arose 
the struggle about the negative, which lasted for ten 
years, and eventuated in the separation of the Gen- 
eral Court into two branches, with each a negative on 
the other.* Then came the jealousy of the deputies 
concerning the magistrates, f as proceeding too much 
by their discretion for want of positive laws, and the 
demand by the deputies that persons should be ap- 
pointed to frame a body of fundamental laws in re- 
semblance of the English Magna Charta. 

• Winthrop, Vol. i. p. 160. ] Ibid. p. 322. 



37 

After this occurred the controversy * relative to 
the powers of the magistrates, during the recess of 
the General Court ; concerning which when the 
deputies found that no compromise could be made, 
and the magistrates declared that, "if occasion 
required, they should act according to the power and 
trust committed to them," the speaker of the house 
in his place replied, — "Then, gentlemen, you 

WILL NOT BE OBEYED." 

In every period of our early history, the friends of 
the ancient hierarchy and monarchy were assiduous 
in their endeavours to introduce a form of govern- 
ment on the principle of an efficient colonial relation. 
Our ancestors were no less vigilant to avail them- 
selves of their local situation and of the difficulties of 
the parent state to defeat those attempts ; — or, in 
their language, " to avoid and protract." They lived, 
however, under a perpetual apprehension, that a royal 
governor would be imposed upon them by the law of 
force. Their resolution never faltered on the point 
of resistance, to the extent of their power. Notwith- 
standing Boston would have been the scene of the 
struggle, and the first victim to it, yet its inhabitants 
never shrunk from their duty through fear of danger, 
and were always among the foremost to prepare for 
every exigency. Castle Island was fortified chiefly, 
and the battery at the north end of the town, and 
that called the " Sconce," wholly, by the voluntary 
contributions of its inhabitants. After the restora- 
tion of Charles the Second, their instructions to their 
representatives in the General Court, breathe one 

* Ibid. Vol. II. p. 169. 



38 

uniform spirit, — "not to recede from their just 
rights and privileges as secured by the patent." 
When, in 1662, the king's Commissioners came to 
Boston, the inhabitants, to show their spirit in sup- 
port of their own laws, took measures to have them 
all arrested for a breach of the Saturday evening law ; 
and actually brought them before the magistrate for 
riotous and abusive carriage. When Randolph, in 
1684, came with his quo warranto against their char- 
ter, on the question being taken in town meeting, 
" whether the freemen were minded that the Gen- 
eral Court should make full submission and entire 
resignation of their charter, and of the privileges 
therein granted, to his Majesty's pleasure," — Boston 
resolved in the negative, ivithout a dissentient. 

In 1689, the tyranny of Andros, the Governor ap- 
pointed by James the Second, having become insup- 
portable to the whole country, Boston rose, like one 
man ; took the battery on Fort Hill by assault in open 
day; made prisoners of the king's Governor, and 
the Captain of the king's frigate, then lying in the 
harbour; and restored, with the concurrence of the 
country, the authority of the old charter leaders. 

By accepting the charter of William and Mary, in 
1692, the people of Massachusetts first yielded their 
claims of independence to the crown. It is only 
requisite to read the official account of the agents of 
the colony, to perceive both the resistance they 
made to that charter, and the necessity which 
compelled their acceptance of it.* Those agents 

*See "A brief Account concerning the Agents of New England, 
and their Negotiation with the Court of England. By Increase 
Mather." London. 1691. 



39 

were told by the king's ministers, that they " must 
take that or none; — that "their consent to it was 
not asked," — that if "they would not submit to the 
king's pleasure they must take what would follow." 
" The opinion of our lawyers," say the agents, " was, 
that a passive submission to the new, was not a 
surrender of the old charter ; and that their taking 
up with this did not make the people of Massachu- 
setts, in law, uncapable of obtaining all their old 
privileges, ichenever a favorable opportunity should 
present itself.'^ In the year 1776, nearly a century 
afterwards, that " favorable opportunity did present 
itself," and the people of Massachusetts, in conformity 
with the opinion of their learned counsel and faithful 
agents, did vindicate and obtain all their " old 
privileges " of self-government. 

Under the new colonial government, thus authori- 
tatively imposed upon them, arose new parties and 
new struggles ; — prerogative men, earnest for a 
permanent salary for the king's governor; — patriots, 
resisting such an establishment, and indignant at the 
negative exercised by that officer. 

At the end of the first century after the settlement, 
three generations of men had passed away. For 
vigor, boldness, enterprise, and a self-sacrificing 
spirit, Massachusetts stood unrivalled.* She had 
added wealth and extensive dominion to the Engfish 
crown. She had turned a barren wilderness into a 
cultivated field, and instead of barbarous tribes had 
planted civilized communities. She had prevented 
France from taking possession of the whole of North 

* See " A Defence of the New England Charters by Jeremiah 
Dummer," printed in 1721. 



40 

America; conquered Port Royal and Acadia and 
attempted the conquest of Canada with a fleet of 
thirty-two sail and two thousand men. At one time 
a fifth of her whole effective male population was 
in arms. When Nevis was plundered by Iberville, 
she voluntarily transmitted two thousand pounds 
sterling for the relief of the inhabitants of that island. 
By these exertions her resources were exhausted, 
her treasury was impoverished, and she stood bereft, 
and " alone with her glory." 

Boston shared in the embarrassments of the com- 
monwealth. Her commerce was crippled by severe 
revenue laws, and by a depreciated currency. Her 
population did not exceed fifteen thousand. In 
September, 1730, she was prevented from all notice 
of this anniversary by the desolations of the small- 
pox. 

Notwithstanding the darkness of these clouds, 
which overhung Massachusetts and its metropolis at 
the close of the first century, in other aspects the 
dawn of a brighter day may be discerned. The ex- 
clusive policy in matters of religion, to which the state 
had been subjected, began gradually to give place to a 
more perfect liberty. Literature was exchanging sub- 
tile metaphysics, quaint conceits, and unwieldy lore, 
for inartificial reasoning, simple taste, and natural 
thought. Dummer defended the colony in language 
polished in the society of Pope and of Bolingbroke. 
Coleman, Cooper, Chauncy, Bowdoin, and others of 
that constellation, were on the horizon. By their 
side shone the star of Franklin ; its early brightness 
giving promise of its meridian splendors^ Even now 
began to appear signs of revolution. Voices of 



41 

complaint and murmur were heard in the air. " Spir- 
its finely touched and to fine issues," — Avilling and 
fearless, — breathing unutterable things, flashed along 
the darkness. In the sky were seen streaming lights, 
indicating the approach of luminaries yet below the 
horizon ; Adams, Hancock, Otis, Warren ; leaders 
of a glorious host; — precursors of eventful times; 
" with fear of change perplexing monarchs." 

It would be appropriate, did time permit, to 
speak of these luminaries, in connexion with our 
revolution ; to trace the principles, which dictated 
the first emigration of the founders of this me- 
tropohs, through the several stages of their devel- 
opement ; and to show that the declaration of inde- 
pendence, in 1776, itself, and all the struggles which 
preceded it, and all the voluntary sacrifices, the self- 
devotion, and the sufferings, to which the people of 
that day submitted, for the attainment of indepen- 
dence, were, so far as respects Massachusetts, but 
the natural and inevitable consequences of the terms 
of that noble engagement, made by our ancestors, in 
August, 1 629, the year before their emigration ; — 
which may well be denominated, from its early and 
later results, the first and original declaration of 
independence by Massachusetts. 

" By God^s assistance, we will be ready in our per- 
sons, and uiith such of our families as are to go with 
us, to embark for the said plantation by the first of 
March next, to pass the seas (under God''s protection) 
to inhabit and continue in JYew England. Provided 
always, that before the last of September 7iext, the 

WHOLE GOVERNMENT, TOGETHER WITH THE PATENT, 

BE FIRST LEGALLY TRANSFERRED AND ESTABLISHED, 
6 



4^ 

TO REMAIN WITH US AND OTHERS, WHICH SHALL 

INHABIT THE SAID PLANTATION." * — Generous reso- 
lution ! Noble foresight ! Sublime self-devotion ; 
chastened and directed by a wisdom, faithful and 
prospective of distant consequences ! Well may we 
exclaim — " This policy overtopped all the policy of 
this world." 

For the advancement of the three great objects 
which were the scope of the pohcy of our ances- 
tors, — intellectual power, religious liberty, and civil 
liberty, — Boston has in no period been surpassed, 
either in readiness to incur, or in energy to make use- 
ful, personal or pecuniary sacrifices. She provided for 
the education of her citizens out of the general fund, 
antecedently to the law of the Commonwealth making 
such provision imperative. Nor can it be questioned, 
that her example and influence had a decisive effect 
in producing that law. An intelligent generosity 
has been conspicuous among her inhabitants on 
this subject, from the day when, in 1635, they 
" entreated our brother Philemon Pormont to be- 
come schoolmaster, for the teaching and nurturing 
children with us," to this hour, when what is equiva- 
lent to a capital of two hundred and fifty thou- 
sand dollars is invested in school-houses, eighty 

* See " A true coppie of the agreement at Cambridge, 1629," in 
Hutchinson's " Collection of Original Papers relative to the History of 
the Colony of Massachusetts Bay," page 25, signed by 

Richard SaltonstaU, Isaac Johnson, 
Thomas Dudley, John Humfrey, 

William Vassal, Thomas Sharp, 

Nicko : West, Increase Nowell, 

John Winthrop, William Pynchon, 

Kellam Browne, William Colbron. 



43 

schools are maintained, and seven thousand and five 
hundred children educated at an expense exceeding 
annually sixty-five thousand dollars. No city in 
the world, in proportion to its means and population, 
ever gave more uniform and unequivocal evidences 
of its desire to diffuse intellectual power and moral 
culture though the whole mass of the communi- 
ty. The result is every day witnessed, at home 
and abroad, in private intercourse and in the public 
assembly ; in a quiet and orderly demeanor, in the self- 
respect and mutual harmony prevalent among its citi- 
zens ; in the general comfort which characterizes 
their condition ; in their submission to the laws ; and 
in that wonderful capacity for self-government which 
postponed for almost two centuries, a city organiza- 
tion ; — and this, even then, was adopted more with 
reference to anticipated, than from experience of 
existing evils. During the whole of that period, and 
even after its population exceeded fifty thousand, its 
financial, economical, and municipal interests were 
managed, either by general vote, or by men appoint- 
ed by the whole multitude ; and with a regularity, 
wisdom, and success, which it will be happy if future 
administrations shall equal, and which certainly they 
will find it difficult to exceed. 

The influence of the institutions of our fathers is 
also apparent in that munificence towards objects of 
public interest or charity, for which, in every period 
of its history, the citizens of Boston have been dis- 
tinguished, and which, by universal consent, is re- 
cognised to be a prominent feature in their character. 
To no city has Boston ever been second in its spirit 
of liberahty. From the first settlement of the 



44 

country to this day, it has been a point to which 
have tended applications for assistance or rehef, on 
account of suffering or misfortune ; for the patronage 
of colleges, the endowment of schools, the erection of 
churches, and the spreading of learning and religion, — 
from almost every section of the United States. Sel- 
dom have the hopes of any worthy applicant been dis- 
appointed. The benevolent and public spirit of its 
inhabitants is also evidenced by its hospitals, its asy- 
lums, public libraries, almshouses, charitable associa- 
tions, — in its patronage of the neighbouring Univer- 
sity, and in its subscriptions for general charities. 

It is obviously impracticable to give any just idea 
of the amount of these charities. They flow from 
virtues which seek the shade and shun record. They 
are silent and secret out-wellings of grateful hearts, 
desirous unostentatiously to acknowledge the bounty 
of Heaven in their prosperity and abundance. The 
result of inquiries, necessarily imperfect, however, au- 
thorize the statement, that, in the records of societies 
having for their objects either learning or some pub- 
lic charity, or in documents in the hands of individ- 
uals relative to contributions for the relief of suffer- 
ing, or the patronage of distinguished merit or talent, 
there exists evidence of the liberality of the citizens of 
this metropolis, and that chiefly within the last thirty 
years, of an amount, by voluntary donation or bequest, 
exceeding one milHon and eight hundred thousand 
dollars.* Far short as this sum falls of the real amount 
obtained within that period from the liberahty of our 
citizens, it is yet enough to make evident, that the 

* See Note H. 



45 

best spirit of the institutions of our ancestors survives 
in the hearts, and is exhibited in the hves, of the 
citizens of Boston ; inspiring love of country and du- 
ty ; stimulating to the active virtues of benevolence 
and charity ; exciting wealth and power to their best 
exercises ; counteracting what is selfish in our na- 
ture ; and elevating the moral and social virtues to 
wise sacrifices and noble energies. 

With respect to religious liberty, where does it 
exist in a more perfect state, than in this metropo- 
hs ? Or where has it ever been enjoyed in a purer 
spirit, or with happier consequences ? In what city 
of equal population are all classes of society more 
distinguished for obedience to the institutions of re- 
hgion, for regular attendance on its worship, for more 
happy intercourse with its ministers, or more uni- 
formly honorable support of them ? In all struggles 
connected with religious liberty, and these are in- 
separable from its possession, it may be said of the 
inhabitants of this city, as truly as of any similar as- 
sociation of men, that they have ever maintained the 
freedom of the Gospel in the spirit of Christianity. 
Divided into various sects, their mutual intercourse 
has, almost without exception, been harmonious and 
respectful. The labors of intemperate zealots, with 
which, occasionally, every age has been troubled, have 
seldom, in this metropolis, been attended with their 
natural and usual consequences. Its sects have nev- 
er been made to fear or hate one another. The ge- 
nius of its inhabitants, through the influence of the 
intellectual power which pervades their mass, has 
ever been quick to detect " close ambition varnished 
o'er with zeal." The modes, the forms, the disci- 



46 

pline, the opinions, which our ancestors held to be 
essential, have, in many respects, been changed or 
obhterated with the progress of time, or been coun- 
tervailed or superseded by rival forms and opinions. 
But veneration for the sacred Scriptures and attach- 
ment to the right of free inquiry, which were the sub- 
stantial motives of their emigration and of all their in- 
stitutions, remain, and are maintained in a Christian 
spirit, (judging by hfe and language) certainly not ex- 
ceeded in the times of any of our ancestors. The right 
to read those Scriptures is universally recognised. 
The means to acquire the possession and to attain the 
knowledge of them are multiphed by the intelligence 
and liberality of the age, and extended to every class 
of society. All men are invited to search for them- 
selves concerning the grounds of their hopes of future 
happiness and acceptance. All are permitted to 
hear from the lips of our Saviour himself, that " the 
meek," " the merciful," " the pure in heart," " the 
persecuted for righteousness' sake," are those who 
shall receive the blessing, and be admitted to the 
presence, of the Eternal Father ; and to be assured 
from those sacred records, that, " in every nation, he 
who feareth God and worketh righteousness is ac- 
cepted of him." Elevated by the power of these 
sublime assurances, as conformable to reason as to 
revelation, man's intellectual principle rises " above 
the smoke and stir of this dim spot," and, hke an 
eagle soaring above the Andes, looks down on the 
cloudy cliffs, the narrow, separating points, and fla- 
ming craters, which divide and terrify men below. 

It is scarcely necessary, on this occasion, to speak 
of civil liberty, or tell of our constitutions of govern- 



47 

ment ; of the freedom they maintain and are calculated 
to preserve ; of the equahty they establish ; the self- 
respect they encourage ; the private and domestic vir- 
tues they cherish ; the love of country they inspire ; 
the self-devotion and self-sacrifice they enjoin ; — 
all these are but the filling up of the great out- 
hne sketched by our fathers, the parts in which, 
through the darkness and perversity of their times, 
they were defective, being corrected ; all are but en- 
deavours, conformed to their great, original concep- 
tion, to group together the strength of society and the 
religious and civil rights of the individual, in a Hving 
and breathing spirit of eflficient power, by forms 
of civil government, adapted to our condition, and 
adjusted to social relations of unexampled greatness 
and extent, unparalleled in their results, and connect- 
ed by principles elevated as the nature of man, and 
immortal as his destinies. 

It is not, however, from local position, nor from 
general circumstances of life and fortune, that the 
pecuhar fehcity of this metropolis is to be deduced. 
Her enviable distinction is, that she is among the 
chiefest of that happy New England family, which 
claims descent from the early emigrants. If we take 
a survey of that family, and, excluding from our view 
the unnumbered multitudes of its members who have 
occupied the vacant wildernesses of other states, we 
restrict our thoughts to the local sphere of New 
England, what scenes open upon our sight ! How 
wild and visionary would seem our prospects, did 
we indulge only natural anticipations of the fu- 
ture ! Already, on an area of seventy thousand 
square miles, a population of two millions ; all, but 



48 

comparatively a few, descendants of the early emi- 
grants ! Six independent Commonwealths, with con- 
stitutions varying in the relations and proportions of 
power, yet uniform in all their general principles ; 
diverse in their pohtical arrangements, yet each 
sufficient for its own necessities ; all harmonious 
with those without, and peaceful within ; embra- 
cing, under the denomination of towns, upwards 
of twelve hundred effective republics, with quali- 
fied powers, indeed, but possessing potent influ- 
ences ; — subject themselves to the respective state 
sovereignties, yet directing all their operations, and 
shaping their policy by constitutional agencies ; 
swayed, no less than the greater republics, by pas- 
sions, interests, and affections ; like them, exciting 
competitions which rouse into action the latent ener- 
gies of mind, and infuse into the mass of each so- 
ciety a knowledge of the nature of its interests, and a 
capacity to understand and share in the defence of 
those of the Commonwealth. The effect of these 
minor republics is daily seen in the existence of 
practical talents, and in the readiness with which 
those talents can be called into the public service of 
the state. 

If, after this general survey of the surface of New 
England, we cast our eyes on its cities and great 
towns, with what wonder should we behold, did not 
familiarity render the phenomenon almost unnoticed, 
men, combined in great multitudes, possessing free- 
dom and the consciousness of strength, — the com- 
parative physical power of the ruler less than that 
of a cobweb across a hon's path, — yet orderly, obe- 
dient, and respectful to authority ; a people, but 



49 

no populace ; every class in reality existing, which the 
general law of society acknowledges, except one, — 
and this exception characterizing the whole country. 
The soil of New England is trodden by no slave. 
In our streets, in our assemblies, in the halls of elec- 
tion and legislation, men of every rank and condition 
meet, and unite or divide on other principles, and are 
actuated by other motives, than those growing out 
of such distinctions. The fears and jealousies, which 
in other countries separate classes of men and make 
them hostile to each other, have here no influence, or 
a very limited one. Each individual, of whatever con- 
dition, has the consciousness of living under known 
laws, which secure equal rights, and guarantee to each 
whatever portion of the goods of life, be it great or 
small, chance, or talent, or industry may have be- 
stowed. All perceive that the honors and rewards of 
society are open equally to the fair competition of 
all ; that the distinctions of wealth, or of power, are 
not fixed in families ; that whatever of this nature 
exists to-day, may be changed to-morrow, or, in a 
coming generation, be absolutely reversed. Com- 
mon principles, interests, hopes, and affections, are 
the result of universal education. Such are the con- 
sequences of the equahty of rights, and of the provis- 
ions for the general diffusion of knowledge and the 
distribution of intestate estates, established by the 
laws framed by the earliest emigrants to New England. 
If from our cities we turn to survey the wide 
expanse of the interior, how do the effects of the in- 
stitutions and example of our early ancestors appear, 
in all the local comfort and accommodation which 
mark the general condition of the whole coun- 
7 



50 

try; — unobtrusive indeed, but substantial; in noth- 
ing splendid, but in every thing sufficient and satis- 
factory. Indications of active talent and practical 
energy exist every where. With a soil compara- 
tively litde luxuriant, and in great proportion either 
rock, or hill, or sand, the skill and industry of 
man are seen triumphing over the obstacles of na- 
ture ; making the rock the guardian of the field ; 
moulding the granite, as though it were clay ; leading 
cultivation to the hill-top, and spreading over the 
arid plain, hitherto unknown and unanticipated har- 
vests. The lofty mansion of the prosperous adjoins 
the lowly dwelHng of the husbandman ; their respec- 
tive inmates are in the daily interchange of civili- 
ty, sympathy, and respect. Enterprise and skill, 
which once held chief affinity with the ocean or 
the sea-board, now begin to delight the interior, 
haunting our rivers, where the music of the wa- 
terfall, with powers more attractive than those of 
the fabled harp of Orpheus, collects around it intel- 
lectual man and material nature. Towns and cities, 
civilized and happy communities, rise, hke exhala- 
tions, on rocks and in forests, till the deep and far- 
resounding voice of the neighbouring torrent is itself 
lost and unheard, amid the predominating noise of 
successful and rejoicing labor. 

What lessons has New England, in every period of 
her history, given to the world ! What lessons do her 
condition and example still give ! How unprecedent- 
ed ; yet how practical ! How simple ; yet how pow- 
erful ! She has proved, that all the variety of Chris- 
tian sects may live together in harmony, under a 
government, which allows equal privileges to all, — 



51 

exclusive pre-eminence to none. She has proved, that 
ignorance among the multitude is not necessary to 
order, but that the surest basis of perfect order is the 
information of the people. She has proved the old 
maxim, that " no government, except a despotism 
with a standing army, can subsist where the peo- 
ple have,arms," is false. Ever since the first set- 
tlement of the country, arms have been required to 
be in the hands of the whole multitude of New Eng- 
land ; yet the use of them in a private quarrel, if it 
have ever happened, is so rare, that a late writer, of 
great intelligence, who had passed his whole life in 
New England, and possessed extensive means of in- 
formation, declares, " I know not a single instance of 
it." * She has proved, that a people, of a character 
essentially military, may subsist without duelling. 
New England has, at all times, been distinguished, 
both on the land and on the ocean, for a daring, fear- 
less, and enterprising spirit; yet the same writer f as- 
serts, that during the whole period of her existence, 
her soil has been disgraced but hy five duels, and 
that only tivo of these were fought by her native in- 
habitants ! Perhaps this assertion is not minute- 
ly correct. There can however be no question, that 
it is sufficiently near the truth to justify the position 
for which it is here adduced, and which the history 
of New England, as well as the experience of her in- 
habitants, abundantly confirms ; that, in the present 
and in every past age, the spirit of our institutions 

* See " Travels in New England and New York, by Timothy Dwight, 
s. T. D., LL. D., late President of Yale College." Vol. iv. p. 334. 
f Tbid. p. 336. 



52 

has, to every important practical purpose, annihilated 
the spirit of duelUng. 

Such are the true glories of the institutions of our 
fathers ! Such the natural fruits of that patience in 
toil, that frugality of disposition, that temperance of 
habit, that general diftusion of knowledge, and that 
sense of religious responsibility, inculcated by the 
precepts, and exhibited in the example of every gen- 
eration of our ancestors ! 

And now, standing at this hour on the dividing Hne 
which separates the ages that are past, from those 
which are to come, how solemn is the thought, that 
not one of this vast assembly — not one of that great 
multitude who now throng our streets, rejoice in our 
fields, and make our hills echo with their gratulations, 
shall live to witness the next return of the era we 
this day celebrate ! The dark veil of futurity conceals 
from human sight the fate of cities and nadons, as 
well as of individuals. Man passes away ; genera- 
tions are but shadows; — there is nothing stable but 
truth ; principles only are immortal. 

What then, in conclusion of this great topic, are the 
elements of the hberty, prosperity, and safety, which 
the inhabitants of New England at this day enjoy? In 
what language, and concerning what comprehensive 
truths, does the wisdom of former times address the 
inexperience of the future? 

Those elements are simple, obvious, and famihar. 

Every civil and rehgious blessing of New England, 
all that here gives happiness to human life, or se- 
curity to human virtue, is alone to be perpetuated 
in the forms and under the auspices of a free com- 
monwealth. 



53 

The commonwealth itself has no other strength or 
hope, than the intelligence and virtue of the individ- 
uals that compose it. 

For the intelligence and virtue of individuals, 
there is no other human assurance than laws, provid- 
ing for the education of the whole people. 

These laws themselves have no strength, or efficient 
sanction, except in the moral and accountable nature 
of man, disclosed in the records of the Christian's faith; 
the right to read, to construe, and to judge concerning 
which, belongs to no class or cast of men, but ex- 
clusively to the individual, who must stand or fall 
by his own acts and his own faith, and not by those 
of another. 

The great comprehensive truths, written in letters 
of living hght on every page of our history, — the 
language addressed by every past age of New Eng- 
land to all future ages is this ; — Human happiness has 
no 'perfect security but freedom; — freedom none but 
virtue; — virtue none but knowledge ; and neither free- 
dom, nor virtue, nor knowledge has amj vigor, or im- 
mortal hope, except in the principles of the Christian 
faith, and in the scmctions of the Christian religion. 



Men of Massachusetts ! Citizens of Boston ! de- 
scendants of the early emigrants ! consider your 
blessings ; consider your duties. You have an in- 
heritance acquired by the labors and sufferings of 
six successive generations of ancestors. They found- 
ed the fabric of your prosperity, in a severe and 
masculine morality ; having intelUgence for its ce- 
ment, and religion for its ground-work. Continue to 



54 

build on the same foundation, and by the same 
principles ; let the extending temple of your coun- 
try's freedom rise, in the spirit of ancient times, in 
proportions of intellectual and moral architecture, — 
just, simple, and sublime. As from the first to this 
day, let New England continue to be an example to 
the world, of the blessings of a free government, 
and of the means and capacity of man to maintain 
it. And, in all times to come, as in all times past, 
may Boston be among the foremost and the boldest 
to exemplify and uphold whatever constitutes the 
prosperity, the happiness, and the glory of New Eng- 
land. 



NOTES. 



Note A., page 9. 
Bostonais. The name is thus applied, at this day, by the Cana- 
dian French. During our revolutionary war, Americans from the 
United States were thus designated in France. Nor was the cus- 
tom wholly discontinued even as late as the year 1795. " We 
may remark," says a writer in the Collections of the Massachusetts 
Historical Society, (Vol. vi, First Series, p. 69,) " that Boston was 
not only the capital of Massachusetts, but the town most cele- 
brated of any in North America. Its trade was extensive ; and 
the name often stands for the country in old authors." 

Note B., po^-c 22. 
The testimony of Chalmers, in his " Political Annals of the United 
Colonies," to the early and undeviating spirit of independence 
which actuated the first emigrants to Massachusetts, is constant, 
unequivocal, and conclusive. Those Annals were written during 
the American revolution, and published in the year 1780, in the 
heat of that controversy, and under the auspices of the British 
government. A few extracts from that work, tending to show the 
pertinacious spirit of independence which characterized our an- 
cestors, and corroborative of the position maintained in the text, 
cannot fail to be interestinir. 



" The Charter of Charles the First, obtained in March, 1628-9, 
was the only one which Massachusetts possessed prior to the revo- 
lution of 1688, and contained its most ancient privileges. 0?i this 
was most dexterously engrafted, not only the original government 
of that colony, but even independence itself.''' — Book I. c. vi. p. 136. 

" The nature of their government was now (1634) changed by 
a variety of regulations, the legality of which cannot easily be 
supported by any other than those principles of independence. 



56 

which sprang up among them, and have at all times governed their 
actions J" — Book I. p. 158. 

Concerning the confederation entered into by the United Colo- 
nies of New England in 1643, Chalmers thus expresses himself. 

" The most inattentive must perceive the exact resemblance 
that confederation bears to a similar junction of the colonies, more 
recent [that of 1775], extensive, and powerful. Both originated 
from Massachusetts, always fruitful in projects of independence. 
'Wise men, at the era of both, remarked, that those memorable asso- 
ciations established a complete system of absolute sovereignty^ 
because the principles upon which it was erected necessarily led 

TO WHAT IT WAS NOT THE POLICV OF THE PRINCIPAL AGENTS 
AT EITHER PERIOD TO AVOW ! 

" The principles, upon which this famous association [that of 
1643] was formed, were altogether those of independency, and it 
cannot easily be supported on any other. The consent of the 
governing powers in England was never applied for and was never 
given." — Book I. c. viii. pp. 177, 178. 

" Principles of aggrandisement seem constantly to have been 
had in view by Massachusetts, as the only rule of its conduct." — 
Book I. p. 180. 

" Massachusetts, in conformity to its accustomed principles, act- 
ed, during the civil wars, almost altogether as an independent 
state. It formed leagues, not only with the neighbouring colonies, 
but with foreign nations, without the consent or knowledge of the 
government of England. It permitted no appeals from its courts 
to the judicatories of the sovereign state, without which a depen- 
dence cannot be preserved or enforced ; and it refused to exercise 
its jurisdiction in the name of the commonwealth of England. It 
assumed the government of that part of New England, which is 
now called New Hampshire, and even extended its power farther 
eastward over the Province of Maine ; and, by force of arms it 
compelled those, who had fled from its persecutions beyond its 
boundaries into the wilderness, to submit to its authority. It 
erected a mint at Boston, impressing the year 1652 on the coin, 
as the era of independence. Though, as we are assured, the coin- 
ing of money is the prerogative of the sovereign, and not the privi- 
lege of a colony." 

" The practice was continued till the dissolution of its govern- 
ment ; thus evincing to all tchcd had been foreseen by the wise. 



57 

that a people of such principles, religious and political, settling at 
so great a distance from control, toould necessarily form an inde- 
pendent state." — Book I. c. viii. p. 181. 

"The committee of state of the long parliament, having resolved 
to oblige Massachusetts to acknowledge their authority, by taking 
a new patent from them and by keeping its courts in their name, 
that colony, according to its wonted policy, by petition and remon- 
strance, declaring the love they bore the parliament, the sufferings 
they had endured in their cause, and their readiness to stand or fall 
with them, and by flattering Cromwell, prevailed so far as that the 
requisitions abovementioned were never complied with, and the 
General Court consequently gained the point in the controversy." — 
Book I. c. viii. pp. 184, 185. 

" But Massachusetts did not only thus artfully foil the parlia- 
ment, but it out-fawned and out-witted Cromwell. They declined 
his invitation to assist his fleet and army, destined to attack the 
Dutch at Manhattan in 1G5;3, and acknowledging the continued 
series of his favors to the colonies, told him, that, " having been ex- 
ercised with serious thoughts of its duty at that juncture, which 
were, that it was most agreeable to the gospel of peace and safest 
for the plantations to forbear the use of the sicord, if it had 
been misled, it humbly craved his pardon." — Book I. c. viii. 
p. 185. 

" The address of Massachusetts abovementioned, it should seem, 
gave perfect satisfaction to Cromwell. Its winning courtship seems 
to have captivated his rugged heart, and, notwithstanding a varie- 
ty of complaints were made to him against that colony, so strong 
were his attachments, that all attempts, either to obtain redress, or 
to prejudice it in his esteem, were to no purpose. Thus did Mas- 
sachusetts, by the prudence or vigor of its councils, triumph over 
its opponents abroad." — Book I. c. viii. p. 188. 

" After the death of Cromv\'ell, Massachusetts acted with a cau- 
tious neutrality. She refused to acknoivledge the authority of 
Richard any more than that of the Parliament or Protector, be- 
cause ALL SUBMISSION WOULD HAVE BEEN INCONSISTENT WITH HER 
INDEPENDENCE." 

" She heard the tidings of the restoration with that scrupulous 
incredulity, with which men listen to news which they wish not to 
be true." — Book I. c. x. p. 249. 

8 



58 

"Prince Charles the Second had received so many proofs of the at- 
tachment of the colonies, during the season of trial, Neio England 
only excepted, that he judged rightly, when he presumed they would 
listen to the news of his restoration with pleasure, and submit to 
his just authority with alacrity. Nor was he in the least deceived. 
They proclaimed his accession with a joy in proportion to their 
recollection of their late sufferings, and to their hope of future 
blessings. Of the recent conduct of Massachusetts, he was well in- 
structed ; he foresaw what really happened, that it would receive the 
tidings of his good fortune with extreme coldness; he was informed 
of the proceedings of a society which assembled at Cooper's Hall, in 
order to promote its interests, and with them, the good old cause of 
enmity to regal poivcr. And in May, ICGl, he appointed the great 
officers of state a committee, * touching the affairs of New Eng- 
land.' That Prince and that colony mutually hated and contemned 
and feared each other, during his reign, because the one suspected 
its principles of attachment, and the other dreaded an invasion of 
its privileges." — Book I. p. 243. 

" The same vessel which brought king Charles's proclamation to 
Boston, in 1G60, brought also Whalley and Goffe, two of tiie regi- 
cides. Far from concealing themselves, they were received very 
courteously by Governor Endicott, and witli universal regard by the 
people of New England. Of this conduct, Charles the Second, was 
perfectly informed, and with it he afterwards reproached Massa- 
chusetts." — Book I. c. X. pp. 2 19, 2.50. 

" The General Court soon turned its attention to a subject of 
higher concernment ; the present condition of affairs. In order 
rightly to understand that duty which the people owed to them- 
selves, and that obedience which was due to the authority of Eng- 
land, a committee at length reported a declaration of rights and du- 
ties, which at once shows the extent of their claims, and their dex- 
terity at involving what they wished to conceal. The General 
Court resolved, — 'That the patent (under God) was the first and 
main foundation of the civil polity of that colony ; that the Govern- 
or and Company are, by the patent, a body politic, which is vested 
with power to make freemen ; that they have authority to chose a 
governor, deputy-governor, assistants, and select representatives ; 
that this government hath ability to set up all kinds of offices ; that 
the governor, deputy-governor, assistants, and select deputies, 
have full jurisdiction, both legislative and executive, for the govern- 



59 

ment of the people here, without appeals, ' excepting law or laws 
repugnant to the laws of England ' ; that this company is privi- 
leged to defend itself against all who shall attempt its annoyance ; 
that any imposition, prejudicial to the country, contrary to any of 
its just ordinances (not repugnant to the laws of England), is an 
infringement of its rights.' — Having thus with a genuine air of 
sovereignty, by its own act, established its own privileges, it decid- 
ed ' concerning its duties and allegiance ' ; and these were de- 
clared to consist in upholding that colony as of right belonging to 
his Majesty, and not subject to any foreign potentate ; in preserving 
his person and dominions ; in settling the peace and prosperity of 
the king and nation, by punishing crimes, and by propagating the 
gospel. It was at the same time determined, that the royal warrant 
for apprehending Whalley and GolYo ought to be faithfully execut- 
ed ; that if any legally obnoxious, and fleeing from the civil justice 
of the state of England, shall come over to these parts, they may 
not expect shelter.' What a picture do these resolutions display 
of the embarrassments of the General Court, between its principles 
of independence on the one hand, and its apprehension of giving 
offence to the state of England, on the other." — Book I. p. 252. 

" During the whole reign of Charles the Second, Massachusetts 
continued to act as she always had done, as an independent stated 

"Disregardingequally her charter and the laws of England, Mas- 
sachusetts establi:ihcd for herself, an independent government, simi- 
lar to those of the Grecian republics" — Book I. c. xvi. p. 400 ; also 
c. xxii, p. 632. 



It is not easy to perceive on what ground Chalmers supports the 
charge against our ancestors, of " concealment" of their real in- 
tentions, by the General Court in their declaration of rights, above 
quoted, from page 2.52 of his Annals. On the contrary, it seems 
to have been conceived in a spirit of boldness, which, consid- 
ering the weakness of the colony, might be much better denom- 
inated imprudently explicit than evasive. It is difficult to conceive 
what the General Court could have added to that declaration of their 
right to independent self-government, unless they had been prepar- 
ed to draw the sword against the king and throw away the scabbard. 

Note C, page 22. 
This is apparent from the fact, that they did form and maintain 
such a commonwealth, and from the further fact that in no other 



60 

way could they, in that age, have had any hope successfully to 
maintain and transmit to their posterity religious liberty, according 
to their conception of that blessing. Those who reason practically 
concerning the motives of mankind, must take their data from their 
master-passions, and the necessities of their situation. Acts best 
develope intentions. Official language takes it modification from 
circumstances, and is often necessarily a very equivocal indica- 
tion of motives. 

To escape from the dominion of the English hierarchy, was our 
ancestors' leading design and firm purpose. They took refuge in 
the forms and principles of a commonwealth ; trusting to their own 
intellectual skill and physical power for its support. They were 
well apprized of the fixed determination of the English hierarchy, 
from the earliest times of their emigration, to subject them to its 
supremacy, if possible; and this design is distinctly avowed by 
Chalmers. 



"The enjoyment of liberty of conscience, the free worship of the 
Supreme Being in the manner most agreeable to themselves, were 
the great objects of the colonists, which they often declared was the 
orincipal end of their emigration. Nevertheless, though their his- 
torians assert the contrary, the charter did not grant spontaneously 
to them a freedom, which had been denied to the solicitations of the 
Brownists ; and it is extremely probable that so essential an omis- 
sion arose, not from accident^ but design." 

" In conformity to his intentions of establishing the Church of 
England in the plantations, James had refused to grant to that sect 
the privilege of exercising its own peculiar modes, though solicited 
by the powerful interest of the Virginia Company. His successor 
adopted and pursued the same policy under the direction of Laud, 
' loho, we are assured, kept ajealous eye over New England.' And 
this reasoning is confirmed by the present patent, tohich required, 
with peculiar caution, ' that the oatii of supremacy shall be ad- 
ministered to every one, tvho shcdl pass to the colony and inhabit 
there.' " — Book I. c. vi. p. 141. 

Note D., page 23. 
The consentaneousness of the views entertained by Chalmers, 
with those presented in the text, respecting the motives of our an- 
cestors in making the removal of the charter the condition of 
their emigration, is remarkable. 



61 

" Several persons of considerable consequence in the nation, 
who had adopted the principles of the Puritans, and who wished to 
enjoy their own mode of worsliip, formed the resolution of emigrat- 
ing to Massachusetts. But they felt themselves inferior, neither to 
the governor nor assistants of the company. They saw and dread- 
ed the inconvenience of being governed by laws made for them with- 
out their consent : and it appeared more rational to them, that the 
colony should be ruled by those who made it the jjlctce of their resi- 
dence, than bi/ men dwelling at the distance of three thousand tniles, 
over lohorn they had no control. At the same time therefore, that 
they proposed to transport themselves, their families, and their es- 
tates, to that country, they insisted that the charter should be 
transmitted with them, and that the corporate powers, which were 
conferred by it, should be executed, in future, in New England." 

"A transaction, similar to this, in all its circumstances, is not 
to be easily met with in story." — Book I. c. vi. pp. 1.50, 151. 



It is very plain from the above extract, that Chalmers understood 
the transfer of the charter to this country in the light in which it is 
represented in the text ; — that the object was self-government ; 
an intention " not to be governed by laws made for them, without 
their consent"; — a determination that those "should rule in New 
England, who made it the place of their residence " ; and " not 
those who dwelt at the distance of three thousand miles, over ichom 
they had no control''' 

Two causes have concurred to keep the motives of our ancestors 
in that measure, from the direct developement which its nature de- 
serves. The first was, that their motives could not be avowed 
consistently with that nominal dependence, which in the weakness 
of the early emigrants was unavoidable. The other was, that al- 
most all the impressions left concerning our early history, have 
been derived through the medium of the clergy, who naturally gave 
an exclusive attention to the predominating motive, which was, un- 
questionably, religious liberty, and paid less regard to what the co- 
lonial statesmen of that day as unquestionably considered to be the 
essential means to that end. The men who said " they would not 
go to New England unless the patent went with them," were not 
clergymen, but high-minded statesmen, who knew what was in- 
cluded in that transfer. Their conduct and that of their immedi- 



62 

ate descendants, speak a language of determined civil independ- 
ence, not, at this day, to be gainsaid. 

Winthrop gives, incidentally, a remarkable evidence of his own 
sensibility, on the subject of the right of self-government, in the 
very earliest period after their emigration. 

" Mr. Winslow, the late Governor of Plymouth," Winthrop re- 
lates, " being this year (1035) in England, petitioned the council 
for a commission to withstand the intrusions of the Dutch and 
French. Notv this," Winthrop remarks, "was undcrtalcen ivith ill- 
advice ; for such precedents endanger our liberty, that we should 

DO NOTHING HEREAFTER BUT BY COMMISSION OUT OF ENGLAND." 

Winthrop, Vol. i. p. 172. 

Note E., page 23. 

That the early emigrants foresaw that the transfer of the charter 
would effectually vest independence, may be deduced, not only 
from the whole tenor of their conduct after their emigration, which 
was an effectual exercise of independence, but from the fact of the 
secrecy, icith which this intention to transfer the charter was main- 
tained, until it teas actually on this side of the Atlantic. 

Our ancestors readily anticipated with what jealousy this trans- 
fer would be viewed by the English government ; and were ac- 
cordingly solicitous to keep it from being known until they and 
the original charter were beyond their power. The original 
records of the General Court, in which the topic of this transfer 
of the charter was first agitated, speak a language on this sub- 
ject, not to be mistaken. 

The terms of this record are as follows : 

"At a General Court holden at London, for the Company of the 
Massachusetts Bay in New England, in Mr. Deputy's house, on 
Tuesday, the 28th of July, 1629. Present, 

Mr. MATHEW CRADOCK, Governor. 
Mr. GOFF, Deputy Go:.'' 

Here follow the names of the " assistants " and "generality," 
who were present. 

" Mr. Governor read certain propositions conceived by himself, 
viz. that for the advancement of the plantation, the inducing and 
encouraging persons of worth and quality to transplant themselves 
and families thither, and for other weighty reasons therein contain- 
ed, to transfer the government of the plantation to those that shall 



63 

inhabit there, and not to continue the same in subordination to the 
company here, as now it is. This business occasioned some de- 
bate ; but by ?'ea.-t»« of t/ic many great and considerable consequen- 
ces thereupon depending, it was not now resolved upon, but those 
present are privately and seriously to consider hereof, and to set 
down their particular reasons in writing, pro and contra, and to 
produce the same at the next General Court, where they being re- 
duced to heads and maturely considered of, the company may then 
proceed to a final resolution therein, and in the mean time they 

ARE DESIRED TO CARRY THIS BUSINESS SECRETLY, THAT THE SAME 

BE NOT DIVULGED." — See Original records of Massachusetts, p. 19. 

What our ancestors thouglit they had gained, or what practical 
consequences they intended to deduce from this transfer of the pa- 
tent, and from their possession of it in this country, is apparent 
from the reasons, given by Winthrop, for not obeying the court 
mandate, to send the patent to England. 

Wintlirop's account is as follows: 

"The General Court was assembled [1 638], in which it was 
agreed, that whereas a very strict order was sent from the Lords 
Commissioners for Plantations, for sending home our patent, 
upon pretence that judgment had passed against it upon a quo 
warranto, a letter should be written by the Governor in the name 
of the Court, to excuse our not sending it; for it was resolved to be 
best, not to send it, because then such of our friends and others in 
England would conceive it to be surrendered, and that thereupon, 
ICC should be bound to rcceinc such a Governor and such orders, as 
should be sent to us, and many bad minds, yea, and some ?veak ones, 
among ourselves, would think it lawful, if not necessary, to 

ACCEPT A GENERAL GOVERNOR." Wiuthrop, Vol. I. p. 209. 

Note F., jjage 25. 
The object of this policy was perceived by Chalmers. Thus, 
he reprobates the law, that " none should be admitted to the free- 
dom of the company but such as were church members, and that 
none but freemen should vote at elections or act as magistrates and 
jurymen," because it excluded fro7n all participation in the gov- 
ernment, those who could not comply with the necessary requisites. 
He understood well, that it was a means of defence against the 
English hierarchy, and intended to exclude from influence all who 
were of the English church ; and complains of it as being " made 



64 

in the true spirit of retaliation ," (Book I. p. 153.) and adds, that 
"this severe law, notwithstanding the vigorous exertions of Charles 
the Second, continued in force till the quo loarranto laid in ruins 
the structure of the government that had established it." 

To prove the necessity of this exclusive policy of our ancestors, 
and that it was strictly a measure of " self-defence," it is proper 
to remark, that as early as April, 1635, a commission was issued 
for the government of the Plantations, granting absolute po2oer to 
the Archbishop of Canterbury and to others, " to make laws and 

CONSTITUTIONS, CONCERNING EITHER THEIR STATE PUBLIC OR THE 
UTILITY OF INDIVIDUALS, AND FOR THE RELIEF OF THE CLERGY TO 
CONSIGN CONVENIENT MAINTENANCE UNTO THEM BY TITHES AND 
OBLATIONS AND OTHER PROFITS ACCORDING TO THEIR DISCRETION," 
AND THEY WERE EMPOWERED TO INFLICT PUNISHMENTS, EITHER 
BY IMPRISONMENT OR BY LOSS OF LIFE AND MEMBERS. 

A broader charter of hierarchical despotism was never conceived. 
The only means of protection against it, to which our ancestors 
could resort, was that which they adopted. By the principle of 
making church-membership a qualification for the enjoyment of 
the rights of a freeman, they excluded from all political influence 
the friends of the hierarchy. To the same motive may he referred 
that other principle, that " no churches should be gathered but 
such as were approved by the magistrate." Notwithstanding that 
the direct tendency of these principles was to destroy the influence 
of the crown and the hierarchy in the colony, the obviousness of the 
motive is unnoticed by Chalmers, for the sake of repeating the 
wross charge of bigotry ; and this too at the very time when he is 
uro'ino' their design of independence against our ancestors as their 
great crime. Our ancestors could not avow their ruling motive ; 
and they seem at all times to be actuated by the noble principle 
of being content to submit in their own characters to the obloquy 
of bigotry, as a less evil than that their children should become 
subject to the hierarchy of the Stuarts. 

It is difficult to perceive how the principles of this commission 
could have been otherwise resisted by our ancestors, than by put- 
ting at once out of influence all those disposed to yield submission 
to it. Nor was it possible for them to apply their disqualification 
directly to the adherents of the English hierarchy Tliey were 
compelled, if it were adopted at all, to make it general, and to ac- 
quiesce in the charge of bigotry in order to give efficacy to their 
policy. 



65 

Note G., page 28. 
Lest the consequences of an opposite policy, had it been adopted 
by our ances-tors, may seem to be exaggerated, as here represented, 
it is proper to state, that upon the strength and united spirit of 
New England mainly depended (under Heaven) the success of 
our revolutionary struggle. Had New England been divided, or 
even less unanimous, independence would have scarcely been 
attempted, or, if attempted, acquired. It will give additional 
strength to this argument to observe, that the number of troops, 
regular and militia, furnished by all the states during the war of 
the revolution, was , - - - - 288,134 



Of these, New England furnished more than half, viz. 147,674 



And Massachusetts alone furnished nearly one third, viz, 83,162 



See the " Collections of the New Hampshire Historical Society," 
Vol. I. p. 236. 

Note H., page 44. 

Amounts received from the liberality of the citizens of Boston 
towards objects of a public nature, of a moral, religious, or literary 
character, chiefly within the last thirty years, as stated in the 
text. 

I. By the following Societies ; 

Boston Athenaeum . - _ _ 75,000 

Humane Society _ . . _ _ 20,791 

Boston Dispensary for the Medical Relief of the Poor 19,000 

Massachusetts General Hospital _ - _ 354,400 

Massachusetts Charitable Society - - 16,714 

Boston Penitent Female Refuge Society - - 15,172 

Boston Fragment Society - - - - 15,205 

Boston Mechanics' Institution - . _ 6,119 

Boston Eye and Ear Infirmary - . . 5,500 

Boston Female Asylum _ _ . . 79,582 

Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge 1,035 
Boston Society for the Religious and Moral Instruction 

of the Poor . - - - . 23,500 

Charitable Mechanic Association - _ . 15,000 

Boston Asylum for Indigent Boys - - - 20,000 

$667,018 



66 

Amount brought up $667,018 
Fatherless and Widows' Society - 6,320 

Howard Benevolent Society - - 16,900 

Charitable Fund, placed under the control 
of the Overseers of the Poor, and derived 
from private benevolence - - 95,000 

Massachusetts Congregational Charitable So- 
ciety .... 51,000 
Seamen's Friend Society - - - 3,000 
American Education Society - - 32,228 
Bible Society ... - 40,000 
Harvard College and the several Institu- 
tions embraced within, or connected with, 
that seminary - . - 222,696 
Theological Institution at Andover - 21,824 

488,968 



[From the above amounts have been as far as possible excluded all 

sums not derived from the citizens of Boston. Those amounts 1,155,986 

also must not be understood as expressing the present amount of 

funds of these Societies, although in many instances it is the 

case ; the object of this recapitulation being not to represent 

the actual state of each of those Societies at this time, but 

the amount they have, within the time specified, received from 

the liberal and public spirit of the citizens of Boston.] 

II. Various contributions for the relief of suf- 
ferers by fire in Boston - - 34,528 
in Newbury port - - 16,500 
in St. Johns - - 8,666 
in Augusta - - 2,264 
in Wiscasset - - 5,504 

67,462 



[The above, although excluding many knovrn contributions, . 

are all ^of ^which the amounts could be ascertained with ac- 1,223,448 
curacy.] 

III. Moneys raised, within the time specified in the 
text, by various contributions, or by donations of 
individuals, either from motives of charity, or for 
the patronizing of distinguished merit, or for the re- 
lief of men eminent for their public services, — 



67 

Amount brought up $1,223,448 

the evidences of whicli have been examined for this 
purpose, (testamentary bequests not being included,) 

8,000 

11,000 

24,500 

10,000 

1,400 

C,000 

2,000 

5,000 

5,000 

In sums between 500 and 1500 - - 35,500 



108,400 

[Particular names and objects have been omitted from motives of 
delicacy or propriety.] 

IV. Amount collected for objects of general charity, or 
for the promotion of literary, moral, or religious pur- 
poses by, or under the influence of, various religious 
societies in the metropolis (not including the particu- 
lar annual objects of expenditure of each society), 
communicated by the several officers o f those socie- 
ties, or by individuals having access to their records 
or to the papers containing evidence of such col- 
lections ..... 469,425 



[The names of the particular societies and objects it is not deemed 
proper to publish, 

1. Because it was the express wish of several officers of the 
societies, that it should not be done. 

2. Because several of tlic societies could not be applied to, and 
their omission here might imply that they have not made sim- 
ilar collections, which would be unjust. 

3. Because, since the account of the amounts thus collected de- 
pends upon the retaining or not retaining (often accidental) of 
the evidence of such collections, the comparative returns are 
very difTerent from what there is reason to believe were the 
comparative amounts collected, as they would have appeared, 
had the evidence in all cases been equally well retained. 

The object, on this occasion, has not been completeness, which 
was known to be impracticable, but as near an approximation 
to it as was possible. How far short the statement in this item 
is from the real amount collected, may be gathered from this 



$1,801,273 



■z 9 

68 

fact, — that information was requested /or the amount collected 
within the last thirty years ; yet more tiian half the sum 
stated in this item arose from collections made within the last 
ten years. 
As a farther illustration, it may not be improper to state, that, 
within the last twelve years. Jive citizens of Boston have de- 
ceased, whose bequests for objects exclusively of public interest 
or benevolence, when united, amount to a sum exceeding 
three hundred thousand dollars ; and that one of these, dur- 
ing the last twenty years of his life, is known to have given 
away, toward similar objects, a sum equal to ten thousand 
dollars annually.] 



